A Picture Worth Three Words
by PriestessNas5
Summary: When Hinata is blackmailed, she ends up with only six days to tell Naruto her feelings. Can she bring herself to do it? If so, how will he take it? And what the hell is with this coded message? A Naruto dramatization of a true story. NaruHina! R&R please?
1. Chapter 1

A Picture Worth Three Words

A Picture Worth Three Words

Notes: This story is a Narutised dramatization of real events one of my friends went through. This story's rough draft was written by her. She doesn't want to post it in fear that people will get it confused with her Naruto fanfic's story lines, so she asked me to edit and post it for her. Applause for Lil-Miaka! This counts for the both of us: NARUHINA 4 EVA!!

Also, most of this story will be **Hinata's POV**. And this story is **POST-TIME-SKIP! **If Hinata seems OOC at the very first, we're sorry, but she goes back IC really quick.

Miaka: Neither PriestessNas nor I own Naruto…but me is Hina…in a way. And I kinda own the weird events that happen…no, wait, God owns that.

Me: Moving _on_…

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(BLACKMAIL MATERIAL)

Drawing is a little known hobby of mine. Only a few people know about it, like Neji, Hanabi, Kiba, and Shino. Even less actually look at it. I keep most of my products secret for a _good_ reason. If I had known what kind of trouble those drawings would get me into, I would have burned them all and my pencils too.

It's unknown to me, or anyone else, exactly when and why Rock Lee decided he was my friend; but once he did, there was no escaping him. He would find me and talk to me about random crap any time he had the chance.

One day, while I was eating my lunch alone outside, I saw the figure in green approaching me. _Crap…_I thought. _What does he want now?_ I didn't have anything against the guy, really. He just had a tendency to speak on annoying subjects no one else understood and had a habit of being completely over-dramatic (even by Japanese acting standards).

"Hello again, Hinata!" He greeted. He looked down at my bentou and the chopsticks in my mouth. "Are you having lunch?"

I rolled my white-lensed eyes and removed the chopsticks from my lips. "No, I was just chewing on these hashi and this bentou fell into my lap." I answered sarcastically (yes, I _am_ capable of making a joke!), though smiling lightly as I said it. _You want your "baka" sign?_ Lee stared laughing at my sarcasm.

"You don't mind if I join you, do you?" He asked after he stopped laughing. I thought for a moment. Why not? I was getting bored anyway.

"Okay, Lee-san." I answered, sounding more like my normal self again. Little did I know that he was going to start making a habit of this. He sat with me around lunchtime almost every day, even when I was having lunch with my teammates. The first time _that_ happened, Kiba seemed especially confused. He didn't say anything, but you could tell he was thinking _"Doesn't Lee have his own friends to annoy?"_ I couldn't help but agree.

"It's a simple information gathering mission." Tsunade explained to our eighth unit. " It shouldn't take you all too long. First, you will retrieve a coded message from a messenger who will meet you at the location I have marked on this map." She handed us the map. "The messenger will then tell you the keyword for the code. We will require you to decipher the note for us once you return." Shino, Kiba, and I all nodded in understanding. Despite this, we couldn't help but wonder why _we_ were the ones who had to decode it.

Apparently, we were able to reach the meeting place before the messenger. That was fine with us, we didn't mind playing the waiting game. I sat, pulled a paper out of hammer space, and a pencil out from behind my ear. The big, fluffy Akumaru drifted from Kiba and settled next to me, causing me to smile and scratch behind his ear a moment.

I began sketching a fantasized image. It started with the outlines for the two heads, so close together, but no distinguishable faces yet. Then I drew the lines for where the two bodies met and pressed together. The shoulders were next, followed by just the start of the arms and backs. You could now plainly tell that one was male and the other was female. The girl's back was arched inward, as if being pulled. Because of this I drew the male's strong arm wrapped around and grasped her by the small of her back. The delicate arms of the girl went under his arms, then up to grab his shoulder blades. I planed on only drawing the upper halves of the two bodies at that moment.

After a moment of pause, I turned my attention back to the heads. I reinforced them with more face-like shapes. The male's face seemed to be hiding his chin behind the girl's for the moment. I moved further up to start on the hair. First, the boy's, spiky and slightly messy. His was the easier of the two. For the female, I had to work more on different segments. The long, smooth hair swooped back, then upwards, some strands more so than others. The effect on her hair was to emphasize the suddenness of motion and leaning slightly back.

Both of the people in my drawing had their faces basically at side view, so only one eye had to be drawn for each. Before I'd let myself draw the eyes, though, I had to make the mouths. I felt my cheeks light up as I showed the boy's lips tugging on the girl's lower lip. There was even a tongue visible from her agape mouth. Once _that_ was done, I drew the eyes. The boy had his closed and relaxed. The girl's pupil-less eye(s) were slightly open, but seemed to show her melting into the kiss and into her love's arms.

The pencil slashed the paper three times as I illustrated the whisker-like marks on the boy's cheek. After adding fingers and drawing the two's individual coats, I colored the girl's hair dark with the same pencil. By now, it would be easy to tell the identities of the two people I'd drawn.

"Hinata? HINATA-CHAN!!" Kiba yelled for my attention. How deep in my daydream had I been? I quickly pulled away from my drawing, but I could still feel the blush I wore due to fantasies I'd been having based on the drawing.

"Ah! G-gomen, Kiba-kun!" I apologized urgently.

"I think that's the messenger heading this way." Kiba pointed out. I stood up and looked in the indicated direction. Honestly, the guy looked way too much like a random, generic, throwaway character. It almost made it seem like there was no use describing him. He was just slapped together at the last moment, and no one cared what became of him past this point.

Kiba, Shino, and I all stepped from the shadows, and I hid my drawing by holding it against myself. He looked us over as we analyzed him. From what I could speculate, the young man seemed to be a ninja from Suna, who looked a little disgruntled because of the mission he had at hand. I don't know exactly why, if the message was in code, you would think that he would feel it was important.

"You guys are Karunai's squad, right?" He asked rather flatly, his arms folded as he hunched over. Strange…did that mean we were specifically requested to be the ones to take this message?

"Yeah." Kiba answered. "I'm Inu-"

"Just skip the introductions, and take your damn letter." The messenger interrupted, shoving the scroll into Kiba's hands. He looked away like he was about to turn and walk off.

"Wait." Shino ordered in his stoic tone. "You forgot to tell us the keyword."

The messenger rolled his eyes. "Alright, your keyword is: koukyougaku."

I couldn't help but wonder why the keyword was "symphony", but Kiba and Shino didn't say anything about it, so I stayed silent…as usual. So, the messenger left in, literally, a flash.

Our group turned back, returning to our village, walking beneath dreary clouds. As soon as the lightest drop of water landed on my head, I hid away my drawing under my purple jacket. If I left it out, the rain would damage the picture, even if it _was_ a light drizzle.

It wasn't untill we were back in the village that the hunger pains set in.

"Heh. Well, I'd say we've earned ourselves a little lunch break, ne?" Kiba asked with a laugh on his voice. I nodded with a smile.

"Agreed." I answered. Shino turned to look at me, tiny drops of water shining on his sunglasses.

"No offence, Hinata, but could you eat somewhere else from where we're going to be eating?" Shino asked with his usual _'lack-of-emotion'_ manner of speaking. Despite the way he talks, I've learned Shino can be quite the sensitive guy. "We're going to try and start to work on deciphering the note, and considering the usual, Lee might become a bit of a distraction." I had to agree with him.

"A-alright." I sighed.

So I retrieved something to eat just as the clouds finished ringing themselves out, and searched for an area that was still dry so I could sit. This had been a strangely warm December, with quite a lack of snow. It came as rain instead. Some suspected that "Global Warming" was to blame for this, but personally, I wasn't sure.

After finding a good place to sit and making sure no one was around, I unzipped my jacket halfway, took my drawing out, and rezipped the jacket. I had to do this fast because I wasn't wearing an undershirt, just my bra. The picture was just about finished, maybe a little shading and perhaps some color would make it perfect. I smiled and blushed at the picture. _If only…_

"What's that?" I nearly jumped out of my body when I heard this suddenly and out of no where. I slammed the paper facedown on the ground (which was dry, thank God). It was Lee, of course, who had scared the shit out of me.

"I-I-it's n-nothing!" I lied bluntly. Had he seen it? Lee had a big mouth, he would tell Naruto-kun in a heartbeat.

He raised a bushy eyebrow. "It _looked_ like something…" He began. Oh no! He _had_ seen it! "I don't know _what_, but it _was_ something…" Never mind. He hadn't.

"N-n-no, it was nothing. J-just a doodle, it's not even good." I defended nervously, with more tension about me than you would get if you put Sasuke and Itachi in the same room.

"Oh. In that case, it should be okay if I look at it." He started reaching for the drawing.

"NO!!" I screeched, throwing myself over the paper. By then Lee already had hand on it, so I landed on top of his hand. "No, no, no, no!!" I continued to cry.

"Aahh! Get off my hand!" He yelled.

"Ugh! What is all this noise over here?" Someone groaned from behind the foliage. Lee and I stopped our yelling and complaining to see Shikamaru trudge into view. He looked from one to the other for a moment.

"Lee, quit molesting Hinata." Ordered Shikamaru. This comment seemed to piss Rock Lee off immensely. Or at least enough to get his hand free.

"THAT IS NOT WHAT I WAS DOING!!" He exploded quickly in his own defense.

Shikamaru smirked. "It sure looked like you were." He sat down nearby. "Maybe I should stay here and make sure you don't try to harass her again."

_Well _this_ is certainly a group of unlikely friends._ I thought, clinging to my paper like a lifeline. Once Lee calmed, he sat back down.

"I was just trying to see what was on that paper of hers." He explained simply. "She got me curious when she wouldn't show it."

"I didn't want to show it because it's private." I admitted. This one picture could tell all of my deepest secrets, particularly having to do with a certain blond, hyperactive, Konoha ninja.

"Well, why did you not say so before?" Lee asked.

"Because, it would make you even more curious." I pointed out.

"Well, I guess that _is_ true." He mused. I took out my lunch and stared eating. All this chaos made me hungry. The other two decided to eat their lunches too. Lee talked with his mouth full of food many times, making him harder to understand than usual.

At some point after we finished eating, Lee decided we should have some desert. "I'll go get us some ice cream!" He announced. He looked at Shikamaru, then at me. "Don't go anywhere." That was tempting.

Once Lee was out of earshot, Shikamaru looked at me. "So, what was so secret about that paper of yours that you wouldn't want eyebrow-kid to see it?" Oh no. I should've known this would come up again. "Is it alright if I see it?" Shikamaru _did_ seem like someone who could keep a secret better than Lee.

Next thing I knew, the paper was in his hands. I didn't even remember handing it over to him. A light red grazed my cheeks, knowing the image that was being examined. It depicted Naruto-kun and I, holding each other close and kissing with such a passion, it would make Icha-Icha characters jealous. Shikamaru smirked in a way that made you scared to think of what was going on in his head.

"You've got some talent here." He complemented, handing the drawing back to me. But his eyes told me that there was more going on in his mind. A chill ran down my spine. "So…" He began with a sly look. "Have you told him yet?"

My face burned from the sudden question. "N-nani?!"

"Don't play dumb." He teased, his devious smile growing. "Naruto! Have you told Naruto how you '_like_' him?"

Horror and embarrassment hit my heart at the same time. "It's not…I don't…" I tried to lie. It was no use, I was busted now. "I-I-I haven't …b-been able to tell him." I confessed.

"What a shame…" He sighed. "I would _hate_ for something to…_slip out._"

Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting? Now I was doing the opposite of blushing. My face drained white as Orochimaru's. "You can't…you wouldn't…actually tell him, would you?" I asked breathlessly.

"Well…" He began teasingly.

"Please! Please no! Don't tell him!" I pleaded desperately. Oh, what a pathetic sight I must have been.

"I won't…if _you_ tell him."

"I…I can't."

"Why not? You've gotten over your nervousness around him, ne?" This much was true. I had gotten better around Naruto-kun, I had even managed to drop my finger-fiddling habit. Naruto-kun even dubbed me as one of his best friends. But telling my feelings…that was another story.

"If I don't…you're going to tell?"

"Well, maybe I won't." He continued. I sighed in relief, but all too soon. Shikamaru smirked in twistedness again. "…But, I might get Rock Lee to tell him."

"Shikamaru-san!" I gasped. "I can't believe how…how…_evil_ you are!"

"No, 'evil' would be having _Sai_ tell him." He corrected. I shuddered at even the _thought_ of that.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked in a hurt tone.

"Because," He began, his face and tone both growing serious, "I don't want you to live without ever knowing. Trust me, I wish someone had done this for _me_ a while back."

For some reason, that passing comment caught my attention. Who had Shikamaru been unable to confess love to? What happened to his chance? This was why he was acting unlike his usual, lazy self?

Shikamaru was eager to change the subject, before any impending questions were actually verbalized. "Tell you what…I'll give you a time limit."

"H-how long?" I asked. There was that creepy smile of his again.

"You have untill Wednesday, next week."


	2. Day One

Note: Yes, there is an Inner Hinata too. Sakura's not the only one with an unspoken side!

Wow, according to the views the first day, PriestessNas working with Lil-Miaka equals EPIC WIN!

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DAY ONE-

(JUST TELL HIM!)

"Next week, Wednesday?" I groaned, falling backwards onto my bed. I'd left Lee and Shikamaru behind and headed back home. It was just the onset of afternoon, but already, I felt mentally exhausted. How could I have gotten myself into this mess? It was already Friday; I only had six days. By the end of six days…Naruto-kun would know my feelings one way or another. I groaned again.

Meanwhile, the Inner Hinata popped up (in all her chibi glory) in my head. _"Its about time __**something**__ gave you an extra incentive to spill your guts to him!"_ But what if I'm not ready to spill my guts?_ "If we're not ready now, we'll never be!"_ There was some truth to that. I sat back up. There was no use moping over this, I still had to meet up with Kiba and Shino to see about the message we needed to decode. I just had to pull myself together. Once that was done, I headed back out.

I found my teammates walking from the direction of the Yamanaka Flower Shop (they had probably eaten at the Barbeque Restaurant further down or something). From where I saw them, Kiba waved, so I waved back…a little less than enthusiastically. They headed over to me, and Kiba grew a concerned expression.

"Hinata? Is something wrong?" Kiba asked as he approached. "You look like you've been through hell."

"I feel like it." I mumbled. Unfortunately, they were able to hear me.

"Why?" Shino asked.

"Yeah, what happened?" Kiba added. Akamaru whimpered.

I looked from Shino to Kiba, and realized that telling them would probably be best. So, I told them everything that happened earlier that day after I split off from them.

"So…you're going to do it?" Kiba asked. "You're going to tell Naruto…about your crush on him."

"I…don't have much of a choice…do I?" I replied, looking down.

"Well, if you are, you're chance is coming this way." Shino observed. I turned quickly around to find the familiar orange-and-black clad blond walking in our direction, talking with another boy with jet-black hair and a shirt so short it showed his belly.

"-the hell! You threw rocks at me!" Naruto's voice became clear. More like yelling at him, not talking with him.

Then came a strange attempt at a laugh from the other boy. "Well you shouldn't have snuck up on me." With that, Sai threw another rock at the blond.

"OW! Stop that, dattebayo!" Naruto snapped with more than mild irritation. "What do you mean 'snuck up on' you!? All I did was say 'Hi'!" Now wouldn't be a good time, not with Sai and his messed up mind in the same presence as Naruto-kun.

Kiba and Shino were able to find where the issue would be, and seemed to be whispering a plan between them and the dog. Kiba turned to me when they were done. "We'll take care of the annoyance, then you'll have your chance with Naruto." What had they planned?

Kiba gave a signal to Akamaru, who went off towards his target. Sai noticed the bounding dog too late to do anything to get away, but put up his arms to protect himself. But Akamaru wasn't targeting him. The nin-dog quickly went for Sai's backpack, which had been subtly opened by Shino's bugs a moment earlier. Quickly, Sai reacted and flipped the large dog on his back, over his head, where he landed in the dirt. There, locked in the canine's jaws, from what I could see, was some kind of book. Whatever it was, seeing it in Akamaru's mouth got some kind of vaguely freaked out look in Sai's eyes. The nin-dog rolled back over onto his paws, and took off as fast as his four legs could take him. Sai turned and followed him.

"Get back here with that!" The team-seven-replacement member yelled with a mix of urgency and uncertainty in his tone.

"Good luck." Kiba whispered to me before chasing after his dog to make sure nothing bad happened. It's more than luck I would need to pull this off. Shino seemed to have disappeared not long after that. Now it was just Naruto and me in the area. A knot formed in my throat. I gulped it down and urged my feet to move forward. Eventually, they listened and I approached the confused but relieved teenage boy. He had apparently gotten up on a fence before the chaos started. I looked up at him, with the afternoon sunlight gleaming in his golden, spiky locks. I couldn't help but stare for a moment, looking at his smooth and handsome face, no longer the child-like face I had known two and a half years before, but still bearing the characteristic of the whisker like marks on each cheek. My heart jumped as he turned his beautiful blue eyes on me.

"Oh! Hey, Hinata-chan!" He greeted me with that wide smile of his that always made the world seem better. Despite my cheeks turning a slightly noticeable shade of pink, I gave him a gentle smile back.

"Hello, Naruto-kun." I replied. We were acting like we usually did when we met recently, but I had to break the comfort zone…the sooner I finished this, the better…right?

"That was weird, wasn't it?" Naruto said suddenly.

"Eh?"

"What just happened a minute ago, wasn't that weird?" He elaborated.

"Oh! Yeah!" I agreed. "I don't know what got into Akamaru back there." I could feel the Inner Hinata growing angry. _"Quit beating around the bush! Tell him!"_ Wow, I had a really bossy conscience. _"Don't make me come out there and kick your butt!"_ I smiled to myself amusedly as I mentally pictured my inner-self coming out through my ear and the horrified expression that Naruto-kun would have. Sometimes my imagination even scared me. "A-ano…anyway…" I began, feeling my chest grow tight. "Um…I…I need t-to tell you…" My heart thundered, and my body began to feel numb. "Uh…an-ano…t-to tell you…th-tha-that…" I pulled my shoulders up, feeling the need to hide. My head was spinning, my knees locked, and I began pushing my fingertips together in front of my nose. "I-I-I…I n-need to…t-to tell…t-t-tell you…th-that…a-a-about…I-I…I…" The world was spinning around me.

"Hinata-chan? You don't look so good." I heard Naruto observe. He had jumped down from the fence and stood right in front of me, his blue eyes staring concerned right in my face. This was too much. I blinked, and the world began to fade.

"Na…Naruto…kun…" I murmured.

"Hina…?!" Was the last thing I heard before everything went dark.

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(Yeah, I know this chapter was shorter…but deal with it, 'kay? Hope you enjoyed! Next chapter coming soon!)


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